To Go Back
by Empyreal Emy
Summary: They decided they needed to move on, to leave. Maybe all they really needed was to go back. Maybe to be taken all the way back to the start. (Dante/Nero, Nero/Torn, Torn/Jak, Jak/Dante)
1. The Days They Left

A/N: My very first story on this site. Please be gentle, but be honest, too; the idea of this is that I can get better at what I love to do.

Title: To go Back

Chapter Title: The Days they Left

Summary: They decided they needed to move on, to leave. Maybe all they really needed was to go back. Maybe to be taken all the way back to the start.

Pairings: Dante/Nero, Dante/Jak, Jak/Torn, Torn/Nero

Warnings: Yaoi, crossover and naughty usage of words

Rating: T, may go up, if encouraged.

Disclaimer: As awesome as it would be to own either the Devil May Cry or Jak and Daxter franchises, I do not. They belong, respectively, to Capcom and Naughty Dog.

* * *

Dante tried not to be bothered by what his partner was doing. _Well, I suppose he's not my partner anymore…_ the half-breed reminded himself.

Nero was packing to leave. Not just on a job that could take a while to return. No, Nero was packing for good. For permanence. For ever. He wasn't coming back home, not there. The DMC office was no longer his home… and Dante was no longer his lover.

"You sure about this, Nero?" the elder hunter questioned, trying not to seem as upset as he was.

Nero didn't miss the way that he called his name. 'Nero,' not 'kid.' He knew it was done as not to further upset him. It was something Dante did when things got bad. They'd never been this bad, of course.

Nero's devil side practically screeched at him in anger as he uttered the words that meant there was no going back. "Yeah. I'm sure." Try as he might, the tears were heard in his voice. The taller male could practically taste them on his tongue. Only, those were his tears, weren't they? _If you could only see the state you've put me in, kid,_ he mused to the now teen-less room.

Everything was messed up now. Nothing could be fixed. It wasn't as if he'd meant to screw it all up in the worst possible way; he just did. _Like I always do,_ he thought, a single tear escaping his control before they all could.

* * *

The teen didn't know where he was going, but he couldn't care less. Though he didn't know, his devil did, and was actually leading him there. He was going to an island that had been forgotten for years. It was further south than the island of Fortuna and much, much bigger. Only ancient maps showed it; it was practically a forgotten continent and something seemed to steer people from it.

He'd been traveling the last couple days aimlessly and was now in a place called Dark Town. Something about the people of it kept him on edge, and he was fairly certain that it wasn't their pointy tipped ears or their sickly pale skin. It wasn't demonic, though, so he just carried on with caution. As he came across the docks, an eerie feeling crossed him as a certain darkness seemed to come from across the sea, as if tainting its waters.

An old fisherman stared at him from his boat. The fisherman, he noticed was half blind. "What's past the horizon?" he asked curiously, suddenly noticing that not only were the old man's ears pointier than the other civilians, but also much longer. They seemed to droop with his age.

The man suddenly laughed, Nero first thinking that it was to be rude at his lack of knowledge on the place, but soon realized it was just the hoarseness of his voice. "You won't be wanting to go there, lad. It's an awful place with a ruler to order the end of any who might threaten his rule. Creatures always blastin' the place to hell. It's a place you won't want to visit, and most certainly won't come back from," the fisherman explained.

"Sounds like my kind of place. Would you mind taking me? I could pay for the trip, of course," Nero said, reaching for his wallet.

The aged man stared at him as though he'd grown a second head before his harsh laughter came again. "Yer one crazy bastard," the man said through his laughter. "Just the kind I like," he continued, the last of his chuckles dying on his tongue. "I'll take you over free of charge. I'm headed that way, anyway."

* * *

"You're…really leaving?" the rasping voice of a dreadlocked man floated through the room, sounding broken.

"Just…just give it a rest," came a well-preserved voice. "I can't take it here anymore. If you feel obligated to keep taking care of this Mar-forsaken city, then go ahead, your choice, but I'm not taking care of these ungrateful people any longer," he justified crossing the room to gather his remaining few items and shoving them into a small pack.

Something snapped in the slightly older faerie, sudden emotion escaping him. "I love you and I always will. Do you really have to go and do this? You don't have to keep saving their asses, but why leave?!" he burst from behind his table.

The teen's response was alarmingly quiet. "Because I'll end up doing it if I stay here. I need to let go…" he said, before turning around. "I'm sorry, Torn, but it's over. I need to leave. I need to move on…"

Torn vaguely heard the second door close behind the young savior. No one heard his curse or his fist hit the table. No one was there to hear them, not anymore… not now that Jak… now that he was gone…

* * *

A/N: Well, how did you like the first chapter? I'll give a better explanation of why Nero left in the next couple chapters, but I didn't want to go into detail in the prologue.

I'll want to try updating around once a week, maybe a little sooner, maybe a little later, but I'll try updating faster if I get reviews or follows and whatnot. (:


	2. The State in which They are Left

A/N: I hope you guys liked the first chapter…I guess you wouldn't be reading this one though, if you weren't at the very least interested… On with the story!

Chapter Title: The State in which They are Left

Disclaimer: I once dreamed about owning Capcom and Naughty Dog… but then I woke up… ):

Chapter note: I decided the rest of the chapters will be present tense, because it just makes it flow better in my opinion. Also, for the sake of not having Nero and Jak be completely confused, lets just pretend both worlds write in English and use the same currency.

* * *

_He's not coming back, _Dante thinks, lying miserable in bed for the third day in a row.

He's a mess, red and black sheets and blanket swirling around him, tangling him to the bed.

He looks awful. He looks sick. He _is _sick.

"Dante, get your lazy ass out of bed, before I shoot it!" a raven haired girl calls from just beyond his door.

"Go ahead, see if I care," is his only response, muffled by the door.

Lady gives the door an inquiring look, as if it has all of the answers, before kicking it forcefully open.

The sight that greets her nearly makes her step back and fall down the stairwell.

The state of her longtime friend is enough to have her concerned, pale hair dampened down to his skull, reminding her of their first meeting, dark purple and brown lining under his eyes, appearing almost bruised, skin looking sickly translucent, rivers of blue showing through just enough to make out. Besides all of that, he also looked tiny, the shirt he'd left on hanging loosely off of him.

Lady doesn't even have the heart to be cruel to him today, or even mention the money due, and that's just wrong.

She moves forward, kneeling down beside the hunter, wiping slicked-down strands away from his eyes. "You okay, Dante?" she asks gently, a small touch of maternal instinct laced in her voice.

"I get the feeling that if I said 'yes,' you wouldn't believe me," he said with a weak smirk that quickly dropped from his face. _No_, he decides. _I'm definitely _not _okay_…

"C'mon," Lady orders softly, concern and exasperation making their way to her face. Her hand now looped around his back, she helped him from the tangled mess that was his bed. "Let's get you in the shower, you might feel better," she encourages, dragging him to the shower stall of his room rather than the one in the bathroom down the hall; she can't picture having to help him down the stairs.

She gets down the stairs at a leisurely pace to get a towel for him, deciding on the softest and largest, also happening to be the reddest. _Maybe it'll comfort him, at least a little, _she thinks.

* * *

Nero silently thanks whatever deity he thought must have been watching over him as he sees the boatman finally pull up to a piece of land that seemed to have a sort of wall towards the end. Nero wanted off the boat as fast as possible; the boat's ride not close to the smoothness of the ferry he took to Capulet. The sailor, however, catches the young man by the shoulder.

"Stay a while," the man starts. "I may not know much about the city, but I might be able to answer some of your questions while I wait for Jak," he explains.

Nero thinks a moment, before questioning: "What is this place? It looks like it used to be a hamlet or something, but it's all torn up now."

"Well, the citizens in Haven call it 'Dead Town,' a lot of those that did live in it are dead from old age, or are too young to remember it being called Sandover Village," he says, sitting down by Nero, backs against the boat interior.

They share friendly banter for a good hour, the elder answering questions the younger had before a man with blonde and green hair donning a blue tunic appeared at the entry to the city. An orange rat seemed to be asleep on his shoulder plate.

"Hope I didn't keep you waiting too long, Fisher," he calls. He looks around Nero's age and, on closer inspection and they're also around the same height, but the faerie shares the long, pointy ears of the fisherman.

"Nah," The man, Fisher, responds. "I shared some company with… what's yer name again?"

"Nero," the human responds, realizing they'd never shared names until now.

"Is he leaving the city with us?" the blonde questions.

"Afraid not, the crazy kid's actually moving to take yer place!" the old man laughs.

The young faerie gives the white-haired teen a perplexed look.

"I just…needed to get away," Nero awkwardly answers the faerie's silent question.

The other gives a wry smile. "I know the feeling," he opens his beige pack, fishing out a few things. He hands Nero a small object resembling a compact mirror. Upon opening it, he sees a flickering photo of the male who gave it to him.

"That will get you in and out of the city and past all of the security points. Any information you might need is probably available in the data-log, which will come up if you press that red button at the top," he walks Nero through the device, gesturing to the glowing red button.

"It will also let you contact people who have scanned it and traces their device and yours, so you can find anyone," he hesitates a moment. "Here," he reaches for it, and seems to have a short conversation, the other end sounding like a female voice. "'Kay, thanks, Tess," he says, ending the call. "If you follow the beacon on the map, that'll take you to my friend, Tess, at the shooting range. She'll take care of you until you figure everything out."

Reaching into his own bag, Nero hands Jak a book and his phone. "The book will document most of the things you come across, and when you get back to land, go to contacts and call Lady, tell her Nero told you to. She'll probably take care of you, too."

Fisher waits patiently for Jak to hop in the boat, the three bidding each other farewell, thinking it would probably be for the last time.

* * *

Ashelin lands a harsh smack to the man in front of her, as if hoping to knock some sense into him.

"What's your problem?! If you're so upset about him leaving, why don't you go after him?!"

"It's not up to me if he decides to leave or stay in this city," Torn responds solemnly. "Besides, the kid's probably long gone already…"

The male faerie really wishes this wasn't happening. He wishes that there was a city to save, or a mission to plan and direct… Hell, even having to pry the crocadog off Samos was better than this! He wanted something to be distracting him from Jak's departure, not Ashelin shoving it in his face that he let his love go forever. Not Ashelin _scolding_ him over it.

Ashelin let go of his shirt for a moment, doing something with her ID chip. "The scans show that he's still in the city. Looks like he might have forgotten something with Tess."

Torn shows his exasperation with a sigh. "I told you already; it's not my choice if he leaves or stays. Shouldn't we just let him go?"

Ashelin sends something between a smirk and a glare to her brotherly friend. "Not without a fight."

* * *

A/N: Wow…long chapter is long… only by a few hundred words than the last one, though. I wasn't expecting it to take so long for me to write it, but I'm fairly happy with how it turned out.

The review box is located rather conveniently just below this to tell me what you liked, what you didn't like and/or errors that I made so that I can fix stop making them if you have time or feel like it.

See you next chapter! ^_^


	3. Q and A Time with Tess

A/N: Not many people have seen this yet, as it is a rather unpopular idea, but oh well. I hope at least one person finds it that likes it.

On with the story!

Disclaimer: If either franchise were mine… Kyrie probably would have at least had a little fight in her and Keira would have been a little understanding when it came to Jak… but neither of those are happening.

This is taking place kind of after Jak 3, but expect a lot of inconsistencies that may or may not be explained (Like Tess being human again). I also kind of give a theory of how Mar/Jak does all that awesome stuff without him remembering.

* * *

"You must be Nero," a blonde assumes, looking up from a gun.

"How'd you guess?"

"Jak said you're young, but you have white hair, that's not too common around here," she waves off.

"You're Tess then, right?"

"That's right!"

The bubbly blonde banters with him for a while before she finishes tinkering with the large gun, setting it in a blue and white crate with an unfamiliar insignia, attaching a paper to it. She takes time to notice his appearance, eyes landing on his own gun and blade.

"A sword?" she questions. "That's a little out of date."

"I guess a lot of people don't use swords anymore, but it's what I was trained with," Nero shrugs.

"I've never seen anyone with a sword before, but the original Mar is depicted using one."

The name strikes a chord in Nero. It sounded familiar, like he'd read it in one of his books. "Who's Mar?"

"Oh, I forget; you're not from around here," she taps her chin, thinking of a simple and appropriate response. "Well there are hundreds of Mar. Each one is a reincarnation of the original. It's said that Mar, the messiah, is only born again when he is needed for that generation. We have our own Mar in this generation: that guy you met when you first came in; Jak."

"You're kidding right? I actually ran into your savior on my way in?"

"As much as I like to make people laugh, I'm not. That Mar has saved this world three times already and, due to a run-in with time travel, prevented the disaster of a second Mar being born into the same time frame."

"But, if Mar is such a good thing to have, then what's wrong with there being two at once?"

"Well, if you think about it, reincarnation is the same soul in a different body, right?"

"Right…" Nero agrees slowly, not understanding where she's going.

"Then that would logically mean that the soul was split into two bodies at once, meaning that not only is the soul of one half as strong, but one side has probably taken more of the purity the longer they reside together, meaning…"

"One side would be darker…" Nero catches.

"Right. We nearly had that very problem in this generation, about a year and a half ago."

"How did you stop it?"

"Well, both of the Mar reincarnations were of Jak; a Jak pushing on eighteen, and a Jak that was barely three. The older Jak was having a hard time holding on to the light that was left inside him, but after he saved the world we were able to send the young Jak through a time rift to many years ago so he could grow up into the Jak that we have today. He's still recovering his soul, now, but I don't think that he can get all of his light back this time, thanks to the damage Praxis did to his mind and body," she explains carefully.

"So there's a sort of time loop where they've gone through the rifts, but the time when they were actually in the same place isn't very long, right?" Nero summarizes.

"Yeah, that's about right," Tess agrees. "Any other questions?"

"Well, just two more," he says a little embarrassed.

"Fire away," the blonde offers.

"You said that Mar is a reincarnation that only shows up when the world needs him, but how do they know when and where he'll show up?"

"All of them are born into the House of Mar and the Seals of Mar will glow at their birth. The symbol painted on the floor is a model of the Seal of Mar," she answers waving her hand around the room at the giant black and white symbol. Nero recognizes it as the same red symbol on the necklace Jak wore. "Your other question?"

"What did the original Mar do to save the world?"

"That's a relatively long one to condense," she smiles. "Around two thousand years ago, demons began to invade our land and the faeries of that time just couldn't match up to them," she starts. It occurs to Nero that with that beginning, Mar may very well be their name for Sparda, or was at least tied to the demon. "Mar was the first faerie that was able to channel eco directly, but that still wasn't enough; it was like every demon he killed, ten more came up.

"When Sparda came, they thought the demon would kill them, but because of Mar's eco channeling abilities, he was able to see the demon's aura and knew that he would help them," _How did I see him coming into the picture? _the human thought. "With the quantity and skill of the demons, Sparda knew that even he and Mar wouldn't be able to take them all and succeed, so he offered a sort of…deal with Mar. It wasn't particularly something that either wanted to do, but it was the only thing Sparda knew would give them at least a chance to beat the demons and put them on the same level," Tess takes a moment to pause, wondering how to go about the next part.

Nero thinks he remembers where that was going. "Sparda… didn't he turn Mar into a demon and mark him as his mate?"

"How'd you guess?"

"I read a lot; it sounded familiar," he explains reaching in his bag for that specific book. "I think it was here, in _Sparda's World Liberation," _he flips through a few pages. "'_Sparda's fight for the Lost Continent_.' It doesn't mention Mar's reincarnations, but it has a picture of his seal and talks about their agreement, Mar's turning, how the mark empowered both of them…says Eva was captured and killed by demons before she could find out…"

"Who was Eva?"

"Sparda was in love with her and she was pregnant towards the end of the war. I don't know if she got the chance to have them or not."

"What's it talk about after all that? It looks around the end of the book."

Nero looks down. "This was the last place he freed of demons, so it's near the end of the book. It says Mar asked to be sealed away, distrusting himself, and Sparda sealed himself away with him. Maybe the way Sparda sealed him away is why he can be reincarnated."

Tess ponders a moment. "Do you think that Sparda loved Mar at all?"

"Why would you think that?"

"Well, he marked him as his mate, didn't he?"

Nero can't suppress a small laugh. "If anything, I think he felt bad about having to turn him into a demon. There's more, here, but it's in devil tongue and I can't make much of it."

"That looks like the language of the ancient Precursors…" Tess compares.

The door opens and a redhead and brunet, both donning dreadlocks, stumble in.

"Where's Jak," the woman asks as the man's eyes fall on Nero.

Tess frowns at the new visitors in a 'you-know-better-than-that' kind of way. Nero didn't know what to do.

* * *

A/N: Well this was mostly a way to connect the worlds together so it doesn't seem as random. It will help you understand things later in the story line better. What I'm saying is it's a filler. But it's an important filler.

Thank you for reading! ^_^


End file.
